This year’s Business Leadership Report is a ‘must-have’ for any provider that wants to know what its clients are really thinking when it comes to selling legal services. The report focuses on the growing range of alternative legal services and innovations provided by both traditional firms and new model law entrants. It quizzes clients on their attitudes towards these services, their uptake of them and pinpoints which are head and shoulders above the rest... Read more

An exhaustive analysis of the UK market including every firm in the top 200 ranked, analysed and benchmarked, UK chambers ranked by turnover, revenue per barrister and which international firms are most active in the UK.

In a speech delivered at the College of Europe in Bruges on 14 January 2013, Joaquín Almunia, Vice-President of the European Commission, and Commissioner responsible for Competition, stated that the Commission hopes to settle around half of its outstanding cartel investigations in 2013, using the settlement procedure instituted in July 2008.

On 24 January 2013, the Internal Market and Consumer Protection committee of the European Parliament endorsed a new Regulation setting out customs procedures for goods suspected of infringing intellectual property rights.

On 29 November 2012, the EU General Court issued a provisional order suspending the European Commission’s decision to communicate to the High Court of England and Wales a copy of Alstom’s reply to the statement of objections in the gas insulated switchgear cartel.

Recently China’s National Development and Reform Commission imposed an RMB353 million (USD 56.7 million) penalty against an international price-fixing cartel of LCD manufacturers, the largest the NDRC has ever imposed for antitrust infringement.

Looking ahead to 2013, directors, executives and general counsel of public companies can take some solace from the fact that 2012 was not a year in which a large number of significant new disclosure rules or governance requirements were adopted.

On 14 November, the EU General Court ruled that the European Commission had been too broad when setting out its mandate for the carrying out of dawn raids at the offices of companies in France and Italy.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has held that employment law in the United Kingdom does not adequately protect individuals from dismissal as a result of their political beliefs or affiliations.